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Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

Hope everyone had a good Productive weekend. I did.

I added a "Logo" to the monitor panel.

and I installed the switches in the front panel. I still have to wire everyting up.

Then I turned my attention to the side panel where the IRIS was going to go. I decided to go with a different idea. One that starts to show you guys what the overall theme of this case is about. Its called motorized madness, and when I think of Motors, I think of gears. So to continue that theme, I figured I might as well have some moving gears in the case. So I drew up some gears and made a "quarter" gear that will rotate out of the way to reveal the window behind. Here is the drawing.

I cut it out using the scroll saw.

Then I drilled a hole and mounted the servo to the side panel. This will be the only thing attached to the side panel that will have to be "unplugged" when I take of the panel.

I added a thin sheet to the back side of the gear so it will hide the window.
here it attached to the servo.

From the back side you can see where the window will be. -There are 2 fan holes that will have to be closed. So I cut a small piece to fill in the Gap where the fan openenign was. and Cut out the window opening.

Then I cut a template and a piece of plexi to use for the window.

Here you can see the plexi window glued into position, and then on the front, I glued the trim plate. so you don't see the joint. This view is from the back.

Then to make it look more like a half gear, I cut out another one on the scroll saw for the bottome "Channel".

I added some sides to the bottom piece and glued it to the side panel. -Basically from the side, it looks like 1/2 of a gear, but the top rotates down into the "channnel" that is created .

Here is the side panel with everything closed.

and now with everything open.

I know alot of you are dissapointed that I coudn't get the iris to work. Believe me, I'm the most dissapointed. I tried building it 3 times and wasted about $40 in materials. but It just wouldn't close right. Every time It would be perfect in the opened position, and then get all screwed up when closed, or it wouldn't close at all. I gave a valiant effort, but at some time I had to say enough was enough and move on to a different idea. I hope everyone likes it. Its obviously a much simpler design and not as cool as the iris, but I think it ties to the theme of the case nicely.

So stay tuned. The moving panels and parts are completed, now comes the fun part of covering all of it, so you don't see it!

Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

Actually the labels were quite easy. I went to my local hobby lobby and picked up some clear printer label sheets with adhesive backing. -6 sheets for $10. then using photoshop I typed out the text and made a reverse image of it so the background would print black and not print the actuall lettering. Then I just printed them out and stuck them to a sheet of semi-translucent plastic. I think it was supposed to used to cut your own stencils. I got that at hobby lobby too. Then I just cut the shape to size and glued it on.

The black from the laser print looks pretty good. although i wish it were a little darker. you can kind of see through it a tada. but I can live with that. I also tried printing it twice to darken it up. but I had a hard time getting it to print in the exact spot each time. -Not sure how well it would do on an inject, or in color.

Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

Very nice Dan! I think the gears are a perfect match for your theme. I would even go so far as to suggest adding a few more smaller ones here and there, or maybe do some gear fan grills to compliment the main gear/window.

Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

Thanks to all of you!

I've been working on the gears.
Here is the first one.

I mounted it above the window opening and added a frosted sheet behind to give it that "translucent" feel. I also started to cover the panel where I dont' want light comming through. -Particularly around the radiator.

I orderd some mesh from MNPCTECH.com for the Radiator cover. -That should get here tomorrow.
Then I worked on cutting out some more of the gears. All that detail takes some time to cut out.